The land of Sanginesio, known over the centuries for being a center of culture and a place dedicated to the education of the new generations, pays homage to the great poet and father of the Italian language, Dante Alighieri (Florence 1265 – Ravenna 1321).
“Sanginesio per Dante” the project conceived by the International Center for Gentilian Studies and the Municipality of San Ginesio is called, sponsored by the University of Macerata: Humanism that innovates and from the Marche Region, to celebrate the seventh centenary of his death. This container includes various activities that will unfold over the course of 2021, to be communicated in due time, also conducted in collaboration with other cultural institutions and resources.
(Montefiore dell’Aso (GRADARA CASTLE) 1874 – Roma 1928)
Dante Adriacus (1920), San Ginesio, modern art gallery.
Woodcut in celebration of the sixth centenary 1921 of the death of Dante Alighieri. The majesty of the almost Michelangelo-like figure is tempered by the liberty-pre-Raphaelite sinuosity of the "flowing and continuous sign of his woodcut technique" which skilfully plays "for sharp contrasts of blacks and whites".
In this unusual front portrait, the poet, girded with the laurel that he never received in life, he places his hands clasped on the volume of the Divine Comedy, open on a lectern / capital of precious Byzantine-fifteenth-century workmanship, assonant with the surrounding architectural minimalism. The open pages allow a glimpse of verses from Canto XXXIII of Paradise. Partially covered by the left hand, the triplet peeks out, illustrating the impervious mystery of the Trinity: “Oh eternal light that alone in you sides / alone, and that you understand, / and steward, you love and smile. " (vv. 124-126).
Under the right hand are read the last four lines of the same song: "The high imagination lacked may here; / but already my desire and velle were turning, / yes as a wheel that is equally moved, / the love that moves the sun and the other stars " (vv. 142-145).
Two steps, probably not by chance chosen, who translate incorporeal subjects such as light and divine love into images, not easy to paint; themes that must have engaged the artist, when he had participated in a project for the illustration of the Divine Comedy, banned in Florence in 1900; or when he had undertaken large frescoes with a sacred subject, like the one he made between 1924-1925 for the Collegiate Church of San Ginesio, dedicated to the numerous Sanginesini fallen in the First World War, or the mighty Stabat Mater, inspired by the "trees of life" of fourteenth-century painting.
He from Carolis, famous illustrator, in particular of the works of Gabriele d'Annunzio, at the explicit request of the latter, he modulated the title of this work according to the suggestion of the writer: "Dante Adriacus". For the city of life and for Gabriele D'Annunzio Adolfo de Carolis Piceno engraved. MCMXX”. Following, in pencil, the autograph dedication: “To the Municipality of San Ginesio, Adolfo de Charles, X 1925”, a further one, touching testimony of his presence in San Ginesio.
The Divine Comedy has been the subject of study for seven centuries and, with his almost cinematographic figurative language that transforms theological concepts into symbols and images of immediate visual grasp, it influences the imagination of readers and feeds the imagination of artists in the composition of works intended for popular devotion.
This imaginative heritage that has innervated the culture of the Middle Ages, after the interlude of serene humanistic classicism, the day after the Council of Trent (1545-1563) returns overbearing in the canons and precepts of the Catholic Counter-Reformation propagated by various means, not excluded the pictorial works destined to represent the new confessional needs of the Rome of the Popes.
With the focus on details, that escape the overall vision of the pictorial evidence of the Sanginesino heritage, it is intended to illustrate the impact of Dante's figurative invention of the Divine Comedy on some painters from different backgrounds who contribute to the ornamentation of local churches. Therefore the devils flying archers are emphasized, souls awaiting eternal salvation and angelic hierarchies, in an attempt to approach the language of the various artists with the angelic creatures of evil and good, executors of the divine will in the three canticles of Hell, of Purgatory and Paradise.
The homage to Dante thus becomes functional to the promotion of the works themselves, even more so in a circumstance like this of the earthquake that, made all the sacred buildings of the Borgo uninhabitable, prevents the use of the cited works, mostly donated in the past by the generous community, and now placed in the major churches where they are kept thanks to the diligence of their priests.
The dutiful homage to Dante Alighieri is completed by a limited presentation of various editions of works and biographies from the San Ginesio Municipal Library together with some didactic manual or guide to the study of his works., texts from the former local Reading Center and collected in the past for the use of teachers of the pre-internet generation.
International Center for Gentilian Studies
The event was broadcast live on the Alberico Cisg Gentili facebook page.
Lectio magistralis by prof. Diego Quaglioni, of the University of Trento, author of the critical edition of our political work, Monarchy (Mondadori, Milano 2014). The conference will be greeted by the Mayor of San Ginesio, sig. Giuliano Ciabocco, and introduced by the President of the CISG, prof. Luigi Lacché of the University of Macerata.
You can review the conference at the link: In search of a universal principle of order. The Dante of Gentili and the Dante of Grotius
Lectio magistralis, in presence, by prof. Justin Steinberg, Department of Romance Language of the University of Chicago (USA), Dante Studies, author, among other things, of the best seller Dante and the boundaries of law and Dante and his audience. Copisti, writers and readers in municipal Italy. Introduced by prof. Luigi Lacchè, University of Macerata, President of the CISG.
The performance was broadcast live but the Professor does not allow the recording to be published on social networks.
Lectio magistralis, in presence, by prof. Giuseppe Capriotti, University of Macerata, "And he had trumpet of his ass". Air devils, earthly angels and some obscene gestures.
Introduce prof. Pierluigi Feliciati, University of Macerata.
In collaboration with the University of Macerata- Humanism that innovates and the Municipality of San Ginesio
You can review the conference at the link: And he had trumpet of his ass
In unparalleled acuity, depth and originality that distinguish his narration, the writer Lucia Tancredi illuminated two female figures, "Defective souls", of the Sky of the Moon of Dante's Purgatory: Piccarda Donati and Costanza d’Altavilla, justifying its 'imperfection' in the counter-light of a refined historical-literary plot. All accompanied by the melodies of the musician Cinzia Pennesi, on the floor.
You can review the conference at the link: Dante, give it, the moon: the sustainable beauty of imperfection
